Color image of a man in a uniform standing outside of a Texaco gas station

Untitled (44UN-8002-165), Togoland (Togo), 1958

Todd Webb

Archival pigment print

Courtesy of the Todd Webb Archive L2020.85.77

Not on View

Webb’s commission from the United Nations required images of industrialization and its effects upon the economies of diverse African nations. Having worked as a photographer for the Standard Oil Company prior to his U.N. assignment, Webb had experience in creating attractive commercial images of what contemporary viewers recognize as an environmentally devastating industry. This photograph of a Texaco station attendant at the pump would have been familiar to American and European viewers as indicative of a thriving postwar economy providing employment opportunities to ready citizens.

Image: In Copyright. Courtesy of the Todd Webb Archive

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